


That’s about it

by MilkyPotus



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: A Bit of Fluff, Angst, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Recovery, Romance, Self-Harm, happy ending!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:48:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22017364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MilkyPotus/pseuds/MilkyPotus
Summary: (Inspired by the trope “Catherine has a breakdown and Anne takes care of her”. I love that so much!)Catherine starts and finishes this chapter of her life by accident.
Relationships: Anne Boleyn/Catherine of Aragon
Comments: 11
Kudos: 149





	That’s about it

**Author's Note:**

> I love the few fanfics that exists about these two! So I decided to write one myself! I wrote this (along with three other fics) on a plane, so don’t expect the highest of quality.

She starts around her upper thighs. 

Catherine of Aragon was too busy. She was one of the six queens who constantly needed to keep herself busy, and who majorly succeeded at it. 

She didn’t feel stressed about it, neither did she care when she had 50 tasks a day to finish. Especially when they were tasks that she set herself to make her feel busy. It was all a routine, a familiar dance she did everyday that was soothing. 

Make sure the other queens were happy, well fed and living their best lives, clean the house, plan their concerts and basically handle everything that the others deemed annoying.

Simple, really. Very simple.

And yet, she had found time to relax, and that made her spiral into a breakdown in the bathroom while she was supposedly bathing. 

The other five queens were having a nice day in, deciding that today they could laze around the house and not cook anything but order take out food. Catherine was happy seeing them laughing whilst watching a movie. When it was her turn to bathe in the giant bathroom, she had felt an itch in her stomach.

Catherine knew, from the moment she closed and locked the door behind her, that this would break her down, and it did. The second she saw her face in the mirror, tears welled up. 

She tries gasping for air, but the steam that had formed in the bathroom from the earlier visit entered instead. She felt like she was suffocating. Her grip on the sink loosens and she falls backwards. 

Her back smacks into the wall, and she hisses when she feels her crashing into the small table with shaving products. She tries reaching for anything, anything close to her that she can use to clean away the tears that wouldn’t stop falling. She felt like she was going to puke, and she takes her knees to her chest for comfort.

She stays like that for a while. Barely taking any breaths, only short and sharp gasps for air. She doesn’t see anything except her tear drenched stockings. She doesn’t hear anything other than a sharp, screeching headache pounding in her head. 

She can’t feel the minutes pass by, neither does she have any sense of direction anymore. The only thing she knew for sure was there was the wall she was leaning on and the floor she sat on.

Catherine exhales when she had finally felt herself calm down, and she looks up from her knees. She hisses when she suddenly feels a sting on the side of her thighs, and as she looks down she realizes why. 

There was a cut in her stockings that she didn’t have time to take off, and it was bleeding. Not to rapidly, but deep enough that blood had covered the edge and a few drops had drizzled down. She was fazed as her eyes landed on a razor that had fallen along with the rest of the products, and she breathes deeply when she grabs it. 

She knows this is wrong. She tells herself multiple times that this is wrong. She knows that if she saw or knew another queen had thought about doing this, she would be furious. She knows that in some way this is forbidden in her beliefs. 

Yet she watches on as she tears another hole into her tights, and how her skin greedily swallows the blade. 

She does it again, and again, as lines form on her thighs, symmetrical and straight. She almost feels herself relax when seeing herself then take care of them, biting onto her lip hard when she disinfects them and places bandages that barely covers them. Even if she had done 6 equally long and deep cuts on herself, one however made by accident, she felt content when cleaning them up. 

This was so messed up. 

She quickly takes a shower, a cold one, and decides to run to her room after. She wears a towel, making sure that she cover her thighs well, then opens the door. Apparently, there was a very confused Jane on the other side who surprises her, and Jane, when opening the door. 

“Catherine, what took you so long?” She asks, and Catherine forces back a sob at her worried tone, deciding to instead give her a light smile. 

“What? I thought I was the last one in, so I decided to take an extra long bath.” Jane narrows her eyes at her, and Catherine rolls her eyes. “Don’t worry, Jane. Im just going up to my room to change quickly, then ill be right down. ‘Aight?” 

“Aight” Seymour says after her. Catherine walks around her and up the stairs in a haste of getting away quickly. 

— 

She continues, even if she felt so guilty over it as soon as she was done. 

Catherine had twelve cuts on her thighs now, six on each, and she tried so hard to make sure they were all in line with each other. There would be two columns on each leg, she had decided, then she would build up with straight lines going down. The first six marks were still rather fresh, since they were still such a vivid red color. Then again, it had only been three days.

She made sure that they wouldn’t ever be visible in her everyday clothes or show clothes, not wanting everyone to worry or see her in such a state. She was the oldest, therefore many saw her as the wisest and as a mother-figure, but Catherine was caving in on herself. 

But this, this was an easier way to ventilate her feelings. It was so quick, and so effective. She almost felt better after she had cut in a mark, as if she was counting her days well spent. 

— 

She had started going up to her stomach when Anne catches her. 

Catherine had made a crucial mistake, and that was letting Anne in to her room whilst she was changing shirts. 

She had completely forgotten about the cuts, being too caught up in hurrying up the stairs and tugging her wet t-shirt off(the sprinkles in the kitchen had been set off because of an awful attempt at baking made by Kat) her head to notice Anne coming into her room in a hurry. She was completely lost until she heard the door close and she looked up towards that direction. 

“Anne, hi?” The Spanish queen addresses the other women and starts rummaging through her drawers for a new and comfortable t-shirt to wear outside. Anne seemed to be quiet for a few seconds and when Catherine finds a shirt to wear, she closes the drawer and looks over at her in confusion. “Is there something you want?” 

Anne’s eyes were wide and full of worry, and Catherine was confused for a moment, until she looked in the direction her eyes were looking. She quickly remembers the marks, the red marks that were made a day prior, the marks that were still in four columns and extending all the way to the underside of her breast. The 32 marks that Catherine had completely forgotten about, even if she daily made two new ones. 

She gasps and pulls on her shirt quickly, then sent a distressed look to Anne, who was now looking her straight in the eyes with her mouth open. 

“Catherine-“ she starts, but the eldest queen wouldn’t let her finish. She steps in closer to Anne, who was still standing by the door. 

“Anne, it isn’t what it looks like” She was obviously lying, anybody would know that. You don’t randomly get perfectly straight cuts on your body. But Catherine doesn’t know how to tell her, or the others, that she was doing this to herself. She was hating how Anne’s face turned sour at her lie. 

“What the fuck would that otherwise be?” Anne hisses out, taking a step closer to Catherine, then going for her shirt. Before she could stop Anne, the second queen had pulled her shirt up over her chest and stared at the cuts. “Oh my God Catherine” there was a significant amount of worry and Catherine feels tears well up in her eyes. 

She doesn’t know what to do, and she lets Anne stare at her bare stomach for a second more before pushing away and pulling down her shirt. 

They are both silent for a while, Anne looking at her (still trying to register this new development) and Catherine tugging at the hems of her shirt, looking anywhere but at the other queen. 

“ Why?” Anne could only ask, too dumbfounded to think of anything else. She hadn’t expected Catherine, of all people, to hurt herself in this way. Sure, she and Catherine were on a rough friendship because of their past, but she still knew enough about her to know that she wasn’t stupid enough to do something so violent. She knew that the new and improved Catherine was much smarter than that!

She had gotten a good look at the cuts, and they were painful to look at. Almost so painful that Anne could feel her neck itch. So the pain it must’ve caused for Catherine... yet she did this to herself. 

Anne knew something had been deeply troubling her for a while, in fact all the queens knew something was bothering her, but Anne didn’t know it was bad enough for this to happen.

Catherine looks down at her feet, then mumbles out “I don’t know”. There was another pregnant pause between them and Anne shakes her head. 

“I have to tell the others” 

“NO! Anne please don’t!” Catherine then retracts back, giving Anne a glare. “I know you still hate me, but please don’t do this. 

“Catherine, I- “ Anne pauses and looks at her friend with disbelief. Where the hell had she gotten that from? Anne definitely doesn’t hate her, in fact she was in love with her! Anne couldn’t watch this happening to somebody she loved dearly, because it hurt her to see Catherine in pain. “This isn’t because of our history, I have to tell them because this isn’t good for anybody. Especially not you!” 

“Anne, please don’t. Ill stop, just don’t tell them. I don’t want to disappoint them anymore than I already do!” A sharp intake of air was taken by both when they heard a gasp outside the door, and Catherine’s face pales when she realizes what that meant. One of the queens had heard their argument.

She gave Anne another desperate look for help, and Anne (against her better judgement) decides to nod and keep this between them (for now). They had to talk more about this, but first they needed to tend to whoever was outside eves dropping. 

Anne opens the door and finds Jane there, looking embarrassed that she was caught but she had a concerned look on her face. “I heard yelling and I wanted to make sure you two wouldn’t drag it on” she pauses and looks at Catherine over Annes shoulder. Catherine shifts uncomfortably under both their stares, but she still manages to look up at them with some sense of power.

“Catherine?” She asks, almost timidly. 

“Yeah?” 

“You have never disappointed us. I’m serious. Whatever it was that you two were speaking of, it will never make us not love you” Jane says slowly, and the words register into the Spanish queens head after a while on denying that truth. If only Jane knew what they were arguing about, then she would be arguing along with Anne. Fortunately, this would be kept between her and Anne. 

Catherine’s eyebrows relax, and she smiles softly at Jane who was still standing by the door. “Even if I had murdered somebody?” She doesn’t want to say thanks, mostly because she can’t accept that comment.

Jane chuckles lightly “I know you Catherine, you would have your reasons to do that” 

Jane apologizes again before leaving the oldest queens room, giving Anne a look that subtly told her that she was still worried. Anne closes the door after she had given her a small nod. 

“Alright, so here’s what I’m thinking” Catherine begins and Anne looks at her with hope of an explanation “you keep quiet about this, I stop and then we can pretend it never happened! That sounds good, right?” She sounded so hopeful that Anne felt her heart tug with pain. 

Anne frowns and shakes her head. “Catherine, I’m not going to sit around and pretend that this is normal. Even I know that it isn’t! Talk to me, have we done something wrong? And why the hell do you feel like you’re disappointing us?” 

“That’s the thing, I honestly don’t know” The Spanish queen makes sure to keep her voice down, not wanting anybody else to hear, but she still raised her voice an octave to emphasize her point. 

Anne gives her another do over, then remembers the pattern of the cuts. “Take off you pants” she grumbles out, and Catherines eyes widen. 

“Now is not the time to do anything like that” she teases lightly and Anne gives her a stern glare. Catherine gulps at the switch of personalities, but stays still. “Im not taking them off.”

“So you have more...” it wasn’t a question, it was a reality that Anne had just noticed was true. Anne wants to scream. This was not how their perfect ever-afters were supposed to be. Catherine wasn’t meant to be so stressed and hateful towards herself now that they are free. Another thing popped into her head, and Anne’s breaths grew faster “you- you haven’t thought about... death, right...?” 

Catherine quickly steps closer to her, leaving a few inches of space between them. “NO! Never! I would never leave you or the rest like that!” 

“But you would leave yourself” Anne finishes her sentence, and Catherine looks away. 

—  
She tries to think of other things, to remind herself of why she shouldn’t do this.

As Catherine had promised, she stops cutting marks on herself, ignoring her angry mind who wanted her too. She didn’t want Anne to give her such a pitiful look again, so she tried her best.

It had been about two weeks, and Anne had been rather close to the Spanish queen under that duration. They would spend hours together, and whenever Catherine went to bathe in the bathroom, Anne was following her in and watching her intently. It had been weird at first, but If Anne wasn’t there to watch her Catherine would be continuing cutting herself. 

The second queen was used to seeing the scars that stretched from her chest to her upper thighs, but that didn’t relieve any feelings she had when seeing them. 

Kat had made a comment about their new relationship when they were all hanging around in the living room. Anne was leaning her head against Catherine’s shoulder and they were playing a competitive game of online chess against each other. 

She had simply said “aren’t you two getting along swell?” She had then gasped and placed a hand over her mouth “Did something happen?” The tone Kat uses was a suggestive one, and Catherine accidentally places her king on the wrong square. The game was over after that, and Anne gave a triumphant yell at her victory. Catherine only rolled her eyes and awaited the cocky comments that were about to come.

Both Anne and Catherine were unsure of what it was, since they had never really talked about their relationship. They were just suddenly closer to each other. Perhaps it was because of the personal space that had been thrown out the window when Anne had discovered Catherine’s awful habit. 

Or the fact that Anne was literally sleeping in Catherine’s bed everyday, something that had started off by a mistake. Anne had been laying in bed together with Catherine, their legs tangled, and they were both doing their own thing. Anne was playing around with Catherine’s hair, trying not to fall asleep, as the Spanish queen was resting her head against Anne’s chest. They were basking in the comfort and silence, and Anne had fallen asleep with Catherine on her. For some reason, they had continued to do this the rest of the week.

Or maybe it was because they finally had something that brought their feelings together, a reason for them not to hate each other. Admittedly, Catherine didn’t in anyway hate Anne, she would never! After being reincarnated and realizing where Anne was coming from, she accepted her apology. They saw each other everyday, perhaps that was what made Anne fall for Catherine, and Catherine fell for Anne when they would bond during the nights when both couldn’t sleep, but they never acknowledge their own feelings until now.

(Anne was only doing this out of pity, Catherine would think. Anne did this out of love and sorrow, since she didn’t want to see the elder queen hurt herself ever again)

There was a tension around Catherine however, and every time she held an object sharp enough to cut skin, her body would be set on fire. 

She was helping Anne of Cleves and Jane in the kitchen, cutting up vegetables whilst they fried some rice for lunch, and her breath was held in the entire time. Anne was currently out with Cathy and Kat, buying something to drink and eat along with the food, so she couldn’t seek comfort in this moment. 

Catherine had to be strong for herself, and she had to remind herself that Anne wasn’t always going to be here with her. Anne had her own life and freedom, and Catherine would never rob her from such a thing.

She was doing so good, at controlling herself and the cuts that she made, and she pushed away all thoughts about cutting herself. Or at least she tried doing that. They kept coming, they didn’t stop and Catherine stopped cutting for a second, instead staring down at the cutting board. 

Not in front of them, she thinks loudly to herself, and that answer pleases her mind for a few seconds. She starts cutting the vegetables again, slicing them down into thin lines and then making uniform cuts across. This was simple. 

But she wanted to so bad, to just take that knife and place it near her body, and Catherine speed up her movements. She breathes deeply and was so glad when she finally finished with her task, and then she excused herself out of the kitchen. Jane and Cleves gave each other confused looks as they saw her leave the kitchen so quickly. 

Catherine went straight into the bathroom, and for some reason her hand reached for the small table with the razor blades on, but she stops when she thinks of Anne. This isn’t a good idea. 

Anne would know if she made a new cut and then she would tell the others. The others would then hate her, think of her as a weak and undeserving queen, and they would cast her out. She would be alone, and Catherine was sure she couldn’t live like that. She needs to be stronger. 

But she looks at the razors again, and she takes a deep breath, then another, and finally feels sense wash over her. She shouldn’t do this, and she wouldn’t. 

A knock on the bathroom door awoke her, and Catherine stares at it as if it had offended her. She fixes her hair a bit and puts on her best smile as she opens the door. Anne was of course there, and she pushes her way into the bathroom and locks the door after them. 

“What the hell were you doing?” She asks, not in anyway greeting her, and Catherine sighs. 

“Nothing, I promise. You can see for yourself later when I shower.” The fact that she was accustomed now to Anne watching her as she showered was enough to make her blush, but Anne was still suspicious. 

“Cleves and Jane said you had been acting weird in the kitchen, was it because you were cutting vegetables?” She asks, her voice growing much softer and almost understanding. Catherine nodded her head slightly, looking down at her hands. 

“I didn’t do anything, haven’t done anything for a week, but at that moment every thought in my head was screaming at me to-“ she gasps when Anne pulls her into a hug, such a soft and undeniably sweet moment that Catherine wanted to feel over and over again. But she couldn’t. She didn’t deserve this love. 

She lets out a soft cry of agony, and Anne hugs her tighter, letting the older queen rest her head into the crook of her shoulder and cry. 

“Catherine, I’m so happy to know you’re unhurt, but please don’t lock yourself away when you get these thoughts.” Anne says and Catherine nods into her neck, her mouth connecting and leaving Anne pleasant kisses of gratitude. Anne refrains from shuddering at the feel of her mouth, because that wasn’t important right now! “Can you promise me to come to me or Jane whenever you have those thoughts?” 

“Jane?” Catherine’s breath hitches and Anne bites her lips at the exhale of warmth on her neck. 

“Yeah, but it’s not because she knows. I haven’t told anyone, like we said, but she can comfort you. So can Cleves, Kat and Cathy. You know we would do anything to help you push through.”

Catherine could only nod, and she finally wraps her arms around Anne and hugs her back. They stay like that even after Catherine’s tears had dried, and until another knock was heard. 

“Can you two please stop making out and get over here? We are done with the food now!” Cathy’s voice boomed through the door, and Catherine smiles against Anne’s shoulder. Anne herself was responds with a shut up and that they were coming soon. 

“ Cathy and Kat think we’re together” she hums into Catherine’s hair, and Catherine blushes again. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Cleves and Jane thought the same. I mean, you’re with me when I shower! Who knows what they think we’re doing” Anne snorts at her remark and pulls softly away to look at Catherine. 

“I love you” 

Catherine’s smile drops immediately. What?

“Why?”

Anne raises an eyebrow. “What’s there not to love about you?” 

“Everything?” 

—  
The last time it happens was on accident, and on her wrist.

The scars where still there, and so where the thoughts, but she had Anne to go to whenever she felt down. And Anne was such an angel at those moments. 

Anne would hold onto her so tightly, whether they were lying in bed, sitting down on a couch or standing, and tell her to breath. She would kiss her lightly on her forehead and tell her she had done a good job. She would praise her and tell her all of her accomplishments throughout the day, it didn’t matter if they were small or big. 

Catherine felt better than ever. The 32 marks on her body were fading away, they would however leave a few light lines to remind her of this misfortune, but she was happy. She finally saw the wrongness of her doing. Everything was going so good. 

Until the 33rd cut was made. And it was a big one. 

It was also by accident, but Anne didn’t know that. 

Catherine and Cathy were just playing around, Anne of Cleves joining in on the fun a moment after. They were playing a game of poker together, betting fake money that they had gotten from a monopoly game board, and Catherine was losing to the German and her goddaughter. Growing tired of the continuous losses, Catherine goes up to bring them some snacks to eat. Hummus and some carrots, that was something all three loved to eat. 

Catherine brought the carrots, small tub of hummus and a knife with her to the living room, smiling widely when the two others brightly exclaimed their love for hummus, almost like children. 

Her smile however falls when the carpet gets caught above her foot, and that the next thing she knew she was falling down. 

The fall wasn’t awful, and nothing was harmed. The tub of hummus survived and didn’t make any mess, and the carrots where in a bag so they couldn’t get dirty. The knife however was nowhere to be seen in her line of vision, which was getting blurry with tears. 

Cleves was immediately by her side and Cathy was running out of the room, yelling for Jane to bring something, but Catherine’s mind was blank. She was just now starting to regain her senses, and she hears Cleves ask her if she was okay. Yes? 

A sharp pain shoots through her arm and she brings up her wrist to her line of vision, noting a huge slash starting from the start of her elbow and going down 6 inches. There was thankfully not a lot of blood gushing out, but it was enough to bring Catherine to tears and cry at the pain.

She breathes in a harsh gasp of air when she sees Kat and Jane come rushing into the room, a small medical kit in Kat’s hand. All four queens surround her, and Catherine can’t help but feel awful at their careful touches as they cleaned the wound. It was cleaned quickly and Catherine told them not to worry about bandaging it. The Spanish queen had adhesive bandages in her room that would be better. 

She stays downstairs in the living room for a few more minutes, making sure they all understood that she was okay. She was happy and ready to leave when she was sure she had convinced them all.

She couldn’t make it to the room however, because it was at that moment Anne walked through the front door that was in front of the living room. The smile Anne had when entering and seeing Catherine drops when she sees her wrist with an angry red cut. 

It was replaced with anger and disbelief, a look nearly resembling disappointment. Catherine quickly tries explaining. “Anne, I fell down and cut myself on accident” she tells her, her voice low and frantic, afraid that the others would hear.

“Bullshit” Anne hisses out loudly and Catherine flinches at the raise in her voice. Anne places her bags full of groceries down and walks over to the taller queen, taking her wrist into her hand. A look of pain flashes through Annes eyes, and Catherine fears the worst for a second. “I thought you were getting better” So she was disappointed, Catherine thought and her eyes started tearing up.

“Getting better at what?” Parr’s voice cuts in and scares the two queens stuck in their own world. They hadn’t noticed the four remaining queens gather around them. Catherine squeezes Anne’s hand. 

“Nothing!” The eldest says quickly, and unconvincingly. Jane rolls her eyes and looks at Anne instead. 

“I don’t know what is going on, but Catherine did fall and hurt herself.” Anne let’s out a sigh of relief that confuses the others. One doesn’t usually react with relief when hearing their significant other was hurt. “Do you two want to explain what’s happening that we others don’t know about?” 

Anne looks at Catherine the entire time, since she didn’t want to explain without her consent. Catherine however doesn’t look at her the entire time, so Anne replies after a few seconds of silence. “I thought Catherine had done that to herself” The queens around them gasp. Catherine bites down on her lip and clenches her eyes shut, whishing for all of this to be a dream. 

It sadly wasn’t and Kat speaks up after a few seconds. 

“What? Where? When? Why?” The four questions were what everybody was wondering, and Catherine takes a deep breath. 

“I haven’t done it in a while, like three weeks” she says and she was cut off before being able to continue answering.

“THREE WEEKS?” Cleves yells, her german accent making a sudden appearance. “Has this been going on for three weeks?” 

“NO! I haven’t cut myself in three weeks! This started like a month ago!” 

“Omg” Cathy exclaims and Catherine panics at their distressed faces. What the fuck has she done. 

“I-Im sorry. I was stupid and stressed about her death and It felt right at the moment and-“ she decided to stop explaining herself when she saw Anne give her a sudden look of confusion. And that’s when Catherine realizes what she had said. 

She brushes a hand through her hair, then leaves the gathering of queens. She had let go of Anne’s hand, but she felt her following along after her. 

She pauses before she closes the door, when she feel her mind telling her that it was a bad idea to be alone right now, and Anne slips through the door before it was shut. 

Anne was however pushed against the door the instance the door was locked, and Catherine hugs her tightly. Anne quickly hugs her back, pulling the sobbing woman close to her and patting her back. 

“ You did good, sweetie” Anne mumbles into her hair, and Catherine shakes her head. “Yes you did. You were honest with yourself. I don’t know if you know this, but being honest with oneself is important” 

“You want to know honesty” Catherine pushes away, but Anne’s arms were still around her to keep her near. “I love you so much, but I can’t love someone when I barely love myself” Anne’s breath hitches at the confession, and she feels her own eyes tear up. That seemed to cause further panic for Catherine. “ Don’t cry! Please don’t cry” but it was too late, and the tears were falling down her cheeks. 

“I love you” Anne only responds, and the tone full of love was enough to bring Catherine back to tears. 

“I know! Im sorry I couldn’t say or show you how much I love you, I’m just so unsure of everything, and -“ she cuts herself off, then stares at Anne for a moment. “Can I kiss you now?” 

Anne raises her brows in surprise at that question, feeling her face heat up. “Yes, sure, but don’t you want to talk about -“ she was cut off by Catherine’s lips engulfing hers in a desperate kiss. Anne knew that Catherine wanted to discuss this later, moments before their sleep, so she followed her lead. She would never want her to force herself to open up, and she had done major progress today. 

It was so bad, so annoyingly awful, to kiss Anne like this. Catherine felt like she was using her. 

— 

She doesn’t talk about it with the others, or at least not the first few days after they had discovered the truth. 

The first day was the worst, since Catherine immediately notices the small changes that had been made. For instance, the shaving table in the bathroom had been moved away, and Jane wouldn’t ask her to join her in the kitchen. She felt completely worthless as the other queens, except Anne, try to lessen her chores around the house. How could they not realize that that was the main cause for her spiral? 

But Catherine doesn’t say anything, because she doesn’t want to say anything. 

But she had enough after four days of the same treatment, and she places her fork down during another awkward dinner. They didn’t even give her a knife to cut her food! 

“I think I need to clear something up with all of you” She starts off strong, her voice steady as she glances at all the other queens around the table. She most certainly has their attention, since they were all waiting for this explanation. 

“You all know how stressed I get around this time of the year, and sure I’ve been able to handle it well enough years prior to this, but this year was especially hard for me, for some reason...” She takes a deep breath, and she feels her appetite fade away at what she was going to say next.

“And I kind of used this” she knew the other knew what she was mentioning “as an awful way to cope with it, and that wasn’t really a smart idea.” Kat huffs out a laugh and Jane slaps her shoulder lightly to quiet her down. The Spanish queen appreciated Kat’s attempt to lighten the mood, since it had worked. She felt a smile tug at the corners of her lips. 

Catherine coughs into her hand to clear her wavering voice. “But now its over, mostly because Anne helped me through it, but it’s much better. I appreciate your subtle ways of helping me, but there’s no need. Really” she finishes and gives them a smile that they all return. Anne, who was sitting to her right, squeezes her hand under the table and gives Catherine a giant grin. Yeah, Catherine thought to herself, this feels much better. 

“I’m really happy that you’re feeling better, and I wish that next time you can come to us faster instead of facing this alone” Jane says, and Catherine nods. Yes, she would like that very much. Jane or the others don’t need to hear her say it, but they can see it on her honest expression of affection.

“Can I ask a question?” Cathy asks after, and Catherine thinks for a moment before nodding. Usually, Cathy would have very off topic questions, so it wouldn’t surprise her if she asked about her skin care routine right now. “Are you and Boleyn officially together now or what?” 

She blinks at that. That was most certainly unexpected. “I-I don’t know how to answer that” she looks at Anne, who shrugs. Catherine doesn’t know how to interpret her shrug, but their nights together the last three days were an indication that something was clearly there. Especially yesterday, she thought to herself. Blushing a light pink, she gulps and says “Yes?” 

Anne seemed shocked “wait, really?” 

“Uh oh, that doesn’t sound good” Cleves says with a whisper, and Jane has to throw a pea at her for making such a comment right now. 

“Well, yes? I mean, you told me you loved me, I said it back, is that not how courting goes nowadays?” Catherine asks and Anne shakes her head. 

“No- well yes! It’s just that I thought you didn’t want to be with me!” 

“Then why the hell would I say that I love you?” Catherine replies and Kat laughs. 

“Or let you in whilst she was showering” she teases the two, making them cringe a bit. There was a sudden shift in the mood between the two and Kat’s mouth widens when she understands what was actually going on. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry” The others catch on quickly to why Kat was apologizing, and a mutual understanding was spread of the situation. 

“How could we not notice” Jane groans and bites into her meatball, and Anne scoffs. 

“I only noticed because I snuck into her room” 

“Yes I get it” Catherine mumbles as she drank from her water, her throat suddenly drying up completely. She really needed to thank Anne for her help, otherwise who knows how far she would have gone. There was a silence that followed her mumble, which scared her, so she decides to break it. “So yeah, that’s about it”


End file.
